I only Survived because he Died
by Matthicus
Summary: Jake Clawson is still young and very frail with sickness, he is missing an important part of his being and could die at any moment; In an alternate universe lies his only hope, his other half, a human. This person must die so that Jake may survive. - Coming off of hiatus, I just have to recollect my thoughts and get back into it, sorry to you people who are waiting on this -
1. Transcending Death

Completely and somewhat Incompletely AU. I am a pretty inexperienced writer and am hoping for reviews. I hope you guys can enjoy this. If you do, I have a bit of a series planned out so it will continue. Rated 'T', as there will be future depictions and themes of violence and death.

- Matthicus

Summary:

Jake Clawson is still young and very frail with sickness, he is missing an important part of his being and could die at any moment; In an alternate universe lies his only hope, his other half, a human. This person must die so that Jake may survive.

Disclaimer/Author's Note: I do not own Swat Kats and pretty much never will. Though, any other characters, not already mentioned in any of the 'Swat Kats' episodes belong to me. (In other words, I don't own diddly squat and wish I did) Also, I am taking this story slowly, and sorry there isn't much SK action here, but I'll get there. Bear with me!

Chapter 1 - Transcending Death

I ran. The woods around me howling in animalistic fervor. The sounds of the wild reaching out to me on all sides, I felt more and more afraid for my life as I ran aimlessly, twisting and ducking around trees. I had to escape.

Against my will I turned, expecting to see some monstrous thing chasing me as I was trying to get away. Luckily, the path behind me was clear, maybe I could actually get away. I constantly looked back, only glancing forward to avoid trees. I stumbled as I ran, my breaths catching in my throat, then eventually escaping my lungs in ragged gasps. The steam from my breath clouded my sight, but the mysterious being failed to appear. Then I crashed into a large and very solid thing, I hit it with enough force to send my body sprawling backwards. I landed with a sharp cry, my backside spasming in pain. I had my eyes clamped shut and my teeth clenched as I hit the ground, silently willing the growing pain to subside. I had to get up and run. I needed to. I looked up to see what I had run into. Initially, all I could see was a shadow blocking my only light source, panic gripping me. But when my eyes adjusted and I realized what I was staring at, I truly felt fear, my heart leaping into my throat. Somehow, it had gotten ahead.

The devilish entity stood in front of me, it's large frame covered from head to toe in a dark cloak as it stood blocking out the moon above. The brown cloth billowing in the light, cool breeze as the figure loomed above me, slowly drawing near. I scrambled away from it, my lower body scraping against the dark featureless ground as the hulking shape drew itself closer and closer by the second. Within mere moments, it was upon me, it's freakishly large hands reaching out to me, the tips of it's crude boney fingers coming to ferocious points. It's claws grasping the air as it's hands got ever closer. I tried to back up some more, but I bumped into an obstacle and had nowhere to go, I was trapped, my path to freedom suddenly obstructed. With no way to escape, the creature easily grabbed hold of me, hauling my small body up a few feet off of the ground. It stopped with my face horrifyingly close to where it's awaited. I shut my eyes in earnest as it pulled me closer still, I turned away in a futile attempt to distance myself and soon felt it's hot breath against my cheek, the smell of death and decay filling my nostrils. My pulse intensified and my resolve wore out as I looked into the monster's horrible visage. A purple demonic face stared back, it's lifeless orange eyes glowing, penetrating me to the very core of my being, it's pupiless eyes heightening my sense of dread. As my fear peaked the creature began to open it's mouth, it's maw opening ready to speak and suddenly...

"Robin!"

"Ngah!" I shouted, sitting up. I sat there clutching my naked chest. I was shaking and sweating. Taking deep breaths I tried to force my heart rate to slow as I told myself that it was just another nightmare. It was the same one I had been having for a while now, yet, every time it happened I got utterly terrified.

"Robin, get up, this is the third time I've called you young man! You're going to be late for school!" my mother called from downstairs.

"Coming!" I called down to her. Pulling the sheets off of me, I turned, got up out of bed, and involuntarily shivered, the fact that I was only wearing boxer shorts didn't help the fact that I was now cold. Hastily I went over to my closet and pulled out some clean clothes, desperate to get warm again. I ended up wearing a long sleeved red shirt and a very baggy pair of jeans. In the top drawer of a night stand immediately beside my closet I found a nice thick pair of white socks and I slipped those on as well. Without out much more preparation I could do in my room I headed across the upstairs hallway to the bathroom. I routinely brushed my teeth, combed my hair and applied deodorant to my already stinking armpits, then unceremoniously left the bathroom and took the stairs to the ground floor of my home.

My mother was already in the kitchen, she had all of her things ready for work and was impatiently standing near the front door clutching a plate with a flimsy slice of toast on it in her free hand.

"Here's some toast. Hurry up and eat it, we have to go." she said with a slight edge of annoyance in her voice. She always got edgy in the mornings.

"'Kay, thanks mom." I said as I hungrily grabbed the morsel of breakfast that loomed before me. Cramming the whole thing in my mouth, I placed the plate in the kitchen sink, ran some water on it, and went back to the front door to follow my mom, grabbing my backpack from beside the door on the way out.

I watched as she climbed in her car and immediately pulled out of our driveway, then continued to watch as she began speeding off to her office. I, on the other hand, turned left headed down the street for a few blocks, passing by all the houses that looked fairly similar to mine. It took me a few minutes, but I eventually made it to my bus stop.

There were a few people from my high school waiting for the bus. By the time I joined them, the large vehicle had pulled around the corner and was driving up to the stop. The yellow shuttle clattered to a stop in front of us, and it's doors swung open lazily, making a loud hissing sound as they did. I paused for a second as everyone else swarmed onto the bus, and I followed the last of them in.

"Harumph" the bus driver growled in greeting, the woman's deep gruff voice raking it's way through my ears and into my brain. I turned to look at her, I saw her lumpy face giving me that scowl. She gave it to everyone, but she reserved her underdeveloped grunts for me, and I didn't know why.

Moving along, I took the only seat available, thankfully I had it all to myself and it was in the front. I prefered the seclusion, and didn't really understand why everyone crowded the back seats first. I could understand the fun it proposed in our younger years, but these days everyone complained of headaches after banging their heads on the ceiling because of the sharp bumps our driver 'took great care to avoid'.

The ride to school wasn't very long, and I spent the whole time in my head thinking about the little machines I made to pass the time. The one I was designing at the moment was an all in one toiletry; it would hold a comb, a toothbrush, some floss, and of course a pair of nail clippers. The device would fit in the palm of the hand and would extend it's different utensils whenever you spoke a personalized command. The only problem, was that I didn't have the required materials, much less the time to make a preliminary design. I huffed in indignation as I was forced to step off the bus and turn my thoughts to the insanely mind numbing school work I had to sit through.

Quickly I made my way off the bus. I threw my school bag over my shoulder and started my short trek to the high school's front door. I got halfway to the school before I got jostled by some jocks as they jaunted on past me, laughing all the while. If only I could handle myself in a brawl, I would have fought at least one of them by now, just to make them leave me alone. Sadly, as if reading my thoughts, one of the grunts turned to jeer at me or make some kind of cat-call to get me riled up. I tried to avert my attention from the large teen, but he quickly prevented me from avoiding him and began walking in my direction. I stopped, knowing that if I tried to step around him he would resort to physical harassment.

"Hey Ribbon!" he sneered, I grinned on the inside.'Some insult' I thought; this guy obviously couldn't think of anything better to do besides switch the vowels in my name.

"Just leave me alone, James." I said, trying to pour all the spite I could muster into my words, it didn't affect James though.

"Hey, I ain't doing nothing to ya'! I'm just here to get that money you owe me." he said, again sneering. He looked back at his buddies for moral support and all five started to snort derisively with laughter. When he looked back at me, I started to mentally fume. I just couldn't stand this guy, thankfully I got my break for the day.

"Mr. Parker! Please leave Robin alone!" called our principle, , from behind the group of football flunkies. All of them looked back in total surprise. I just gave a small chuckle of my own. "Yes, that means you six, go ahead and make your merry way to the auditorium, the seniors will be taking their trip in half an hour and you need to catch the quick meeting beforehand." he said. "Robin, can you stay? I need speak to you for a moment." he asked me after addressing the athletes.

"Uh, yeah. I was just heading to your office to ask you a question." I replied, somewhat taken aback, what did he want to talk to me about.

"And what did you want to ask me?" he inquired.

"I just wanted to ask if I could leave my school stuff in your office, last time we went on a trip, I had some trouble with missing personal items, and I know for those guys were involved." I said sheepishly.

"Well of course, you can. Do you want me to talk to those young men?" he asked.

"Oh no, I would rather not to make a big deal out of it, I got a new wallet and the money was a minor thing. I'm fine." I said, giving a dismissive gesture with my hand.

"Well, hand me your stuff and go ahead and make your way to the buses on the right side of the school, they'll be leaving soon, you and a few other seniors missed the orientation for the trip. Oh, and before I forget, I need to talk to you when you get back, come to my office as soon as you get here." he said.

"Yes sir, and thanks for watching my stuff" I acknowledged as I handed over my bag. I turned away giving a small wave as I did so. I walked around the buildings to the buses. I saw most of the senior class waiting around while the more proactive ones were loading the buses. There were seven buses in total. I couldn't decide which bus to get on, but after I noticed James and his goonies waiting near the seventh bus, I made sure to get on the first bus, quickly taking one of the seats at the front.

All of the seniors were taking periodic field trips around the city, the building we were touring was another example. We were learning about the different kinds of jobs available to college graduates in an effort to get us to actually go to college. That didn't concern me though, I was planning to go anyway; I mean, how could you not after being number one in your class.

Currently we were learning about architecture all it's pros, cons, and some tidbits about building and what/what not to do. The tour guide in front of the group was speaking and pointing emphatically to a set of support beams where they were going to build some kind of column in the middle of the room. 'How could anyone get that excited about architecture. He is probably faking it.' I thought.

The tour went on for a few minutes longer, the tour guide droning on; "If you'll look over here" this, and "On your left hand side" that. It was interesting and all, but I was getting rapidly disinterested. I realized that the tour was winding down when we suddenly got permission to look around and examine the different projects going on around the top floor. That got my interest back.

The space we were allowed to explore was very large and roomy and fit the entirety of the senior class easily and gave us enough room to walk around comfortably without bumping into each other. I quickly made my way over to an area where they were planning to put a large window, trying in vain to get some distance. There was a small railing and some plastic protecting me from a very long fall. I looked down an outward attempt to be casual,but I was inwardly groaning at the height. It wasn't a big deal, but standing at the edge of a building's' top floor with no real support would scare anyone. I took shaky breath to calm myself, and averted my eyes to look out at the city, quickly calming down at the new sight.

"Hey, there you are Ribbon! Thought you were gonna get away, just because of Simmons?" an all too familiarly annoying voice called from behind me. I kept my eyes on the distant horizon of roof tops, trying to ignore the on coming nuisance. He clapped me hard on the back, taking a place beside me. He had surprised me with the quick clap, and sure enough I found myself stumbling forward, unable to keep my feet beneath me.

"Aaah!" was all I managed before I was tumbling through the plastic covering and making my way to the ground at terminal velocity. I watched as the ground rapidly approached, I was mere few seconds from death and all I could think about was how I wouldn't ever get to say goodbye to anyone, not my mom, not , not a single soul. Sadly, the last thing I heard was a fellow classmate's scream, a high pitched girly squeal. I felt glad that someone showed a little fear for my death, but it was probably because they didn't want to fall and seeing me made them even more scared.

Before I hit the ground I blacked out. I found myself lying face up, nothing beneath me. I was just laying there. I opened my eyes, giving a small grunt. At first I thought I might have survived the fall, but all I saw was pitch black empty space. The black I was 'floating' in was surreal. I was just floating there, my body lying in a pathetic stupor. I moved my hand in front of face, how could I see it in this darkness? 'Is this death?' I reflected, my voice ringing out not only through my conscious thought, but also the dark area of what could be purgatory. I heard my voice echo through the vastness, but it wasn't just my voice, there was another in there. Very similar to mine, but slightly raspier than mine.

"Who's there?" we called out in unison. Obviously, the other person waiting for their eternal life sentence had distinguished my voice from theirs, just like I had with them.

Before I could reply, another voice came into play, a woman's and she was crying out. 'Was that my mom?' I wondered, oddly the other voice thought the same thing and again our voices rang out in odd harmony. I quieted, trying to hear the distraught woman, hoping, that if it was my mom, that she would be all right.

"Oh" she moaned. "My poor baby, he's so sick. I don't know what to do..." she bawled.

"Mom." the other raspy voice said. 'It had to be his mom, I wasn't sick...' I thought, feeling a little guilty for disrupting the audible vision.

"I can't pay the hospital bills, but I have to try. I can't have him die on me, my poor kitten." she continued, this time bawling with more vigour, a true wail of despair.

'Kitten, what kind of nickname was that for your child?' I thought. I didn't get a vocal response from the other, but I did feel a strong wave of compassion for the woman.

"Are you... her son?" I asked the other person.

"Yes, I am." he replied solemnly. I could feel the sadness in his voice, it even caused me to tear up. "She doesn't know that I died."

"How sick were you?" I asked shakily.

"It was pretty bad, I couldn't fight off anything and was always getting sick. The medicine didn't help, and I progressively got worse, this was bound to happen and I knew it." he chuckled darkly.

"That's stinks." I consoled. That was the last of our conversation. I wanted to meet the poor young man who had suffered an ill fate just as I had. 'I bet we had even passed at the same time. That could mean something.' I felt the other young man agree, but both of our senses went on full alert as the darkness surrounding us entered a state of turmoil. My body, and undoubtedly his, began to heat up. My body temperature rising to an unbearable level. I tried to move, to show my discomfort, but something wet was holding me down. The wet heat travelled up my arms and legs, quickly overtaking me and dragging me down. The last thing I managed to think before I passed again into hazy sleep was, 'Am I being dragged to hell?!'

My eyes snapped open, and I stared up at a white ceiling. 'Didn't I just fall out of a building? Or was that another nightmare?'. Turning my head, I noticed that I was in my room, lying on my bed. But something was different about this place, instead of all my academic awards, there were awards for all kinds of sports and physical activities. Funnier still, was that they didn't seem out of place. Another important detail I noticed was that they were all for a 'Jacob Clawson'. 'What were those doing in my room?' I wondered, but another side to me said they were mine. I closed my eyes and rubbed them, trying to make these weird feelings go away, but they persisted. I opened my eyes again and looked over at the awards stand again. 'For an Outstanding performance, Jacob Clawson, is award first place in the National Juniors competition for Mixed Martial Arts.', nope, I still felt both pride and confusion; it made me feel ill. I looked down at my arms lazily, trying to figure out what was going on. Once I caught sight of my arms however, I paused my eyes widening, they were covered in thick brown hair.

"Oh my Go -!" I screamed as I fell out of my bed, rolling on the floor and tangling myself in my sheets.


	2. The Meaning of Death

Author's Note:

In this chapter I am aiming for a transition from Robin's point of view on to Jake's. Anyway, I hope that this chapter somewhat clarifies what went on near the end of chapter one. Also, stick with me all the way through, this may be a long chapter!

- _Matthicus_

P.S. : I want to let you guys know, this is being told by a different person than in the first chapter and he has amnesia and can't remember life previous, but is still familiar with things like family and home, and whatnot.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own the Swat Kats, the only thing I own here is the Alternate Universe(and not even much of that, just my 'version' of life before the series starts(and then some)) and of course my OC, Robin. (Who just died in the previous chapter :( (although he will still be involved in this story and you'll have to figure out how on your own.))

**Chapter 2: The Meaning of Death**

My eyes were still wide from shock, but I didn't understand why. I sat up, an involuntarily hiss escaped through my clenched teeth as I felt the sudden flare of pain in my lower back. 'Why did I do that? That had to be the dumbest thing I have ever done.' I mentally grumbled, not expecting a response.

'Well I freaked out, I mean my,... I guess I should say 'our', arms are covered in fur.' muttered the voice from my dream. The response took me completely by surprise and silenced me. My jaw working uselessly, trying to form words as I sat there flabbergasted.

"Huh?" I finally managed to say. Searching my mind I felt another very familiar presence. Another second passed and I remembered that it was the other young man from my dream. After a few more seconds of silence, I felt embarrassment. I could feel his emotions. He felt very out of place and confused, just like me. I took a moment to calm my self so that I could reply and take some of the awkwardness out of this situation.

'Well, yeah. Isn't that normal?' I thought, pushing the mental sarcasm to the still unidentified other person; the voice of my thoughts reflecting that of my physical voice, not to mention the fact that it was also shaking with shock; completely making my attempt at sarcasm useless.

'Not where I came from.' he replied equally mystified. I cocked my head to the side, still trying to fathom how someone was unable to comprehend fur.

'Where did you come from, and who are you?' I implored. 'This is getting weird.' I thought, trying to hide that particular last thought from the other entity.

'You're telling me.' he replied, obviously hearing the thought I had tried to hide. 'Anyway, my name's Robin and I came from a place called Earth. What's your name, and where are we?'

'Hey I thought I was asking the questions here, but if you must know, my name's Jake. Although something's bugging me. I mean if you're from Earth you should know about the fur on our bodies, all kats are born with it on this planet.'

'I'm no kat. I'm human. Besides, right now you should probably get up. We can discuss alternate realities later.' he replied. Tossing the idea out of my mental window I complied, swiftly dislodging myself from the tangle of sheets on the floor. Standing up I started rubbing my rear, where I had taken the brunt of the fall.

'You're so lucky my tail didn't get squashed when I fell, I would have mentally murdered you. On that note, how did you get me to fall down? I wasn't all that surprised, unlike you.' I wondered, while still rubbing my sore back end.

'Beats me! But if you want me to take a guess, I would say I can only_ influence_ what you can do. That would mean if I get super surprised, you will too, to a lesser extent... or something like that.'

'Makes sense.' I said.

I turned around enough to allow myelf to take a seat back on the bed. When I sat down, the mattress springs gave a loud squeal of protest, making my ears twitch in annoyance. I reached down for the covers on the floor and as soon I pulled the sheets back up onto my body, I heard the tell-tale pounding sound of someone running up the stairs.

"Hon'? You okay?" a woman's voice called up from the stairwell amidst the pounding of her running.

'Who's that?' Robin asked in my head.

'It's probably my mom.' I replied. 'She must be coming to check up on me. After all, I am sickly, so she's probably worried I tried to go to the bathroom on my own, fell down, and died.' I replied in jest.

'She'd flip if she found out you really did die.' Robin said, voicing my main concern.

'Oh yea, I can foresee one mega-sized hairball coming from her; she's likely to freak out _that_ bad. That's why I'll keep it a secret for now.'. I didn't get a reply from him, but I could hear his laughter echoing through my head, and that was a pretty weird feeling.

My bedroom door creaked open and my mom's head poked in. When she saw me sitting on my bed her expression changed from her usual worry to a comical relief. I gave a small smile as she came in the room.

"Hey kitten, what's going on in here?" she asked in a hushed tone. As if talking louder would break me.

'That nickname makes so much sense now...' Robin said out of the blue. Ignoring his goofy comment I instead turned my attention back to my mother.

"Oh, I um... fell out of bed." I admitted.

"What were you doing to fall out of bed?" she pressed.

"I was having a nightmare."

"What was it about?"

'Oh yeah, some nightmare.' Robin muttered.

"Hush." I said, voicing the word aloud accidentally.

"Hm?" my mother asked while giving me a scathing look, one eyebrow raised imploringly. "What was that?" I gasped in mute horror and clammed up, my ears flattening themselves against my skull. 'Had I said that out loud?!'

'Oh yes, that was very much out loud.' Robin antagonized, 'And you're gonna be in trouble for that.'

"Oh it was nothing mom, a slip of the tongue. I'm sorry and I swear it wasn't aimed at you." I apologized, relaxing a little as she went back to being concerned.

"Oh it's okay. Well, since, I'm up here, are you feeling okay? Still sick?"

"Actually no, I'm feeling fine." It was actually the first time I had thought about whether or not I was sick.

"Well, just to be sure, I'm going to check you for fever." she said as she pulled her head out of my room and closed the door. I heard her as she walked across the hallway carpet, shuffling as she went across the hall and into the bathroom.

'This is odd, one moment I'm on my deathbed, sicker than I've ever been. Then I wake up after _dying_ and bam. Just like that, I'm okay. I know you're involved in this somehow.' I thought. Robin was quiet for a short while, but I could hear his thoughts as he pondered what had happened. They were vague and uncoordinated. I could feel gratitude, hate and relief as he thought about his day previous to death. The line of emotions he felt throughout the day quickly came to hope, regret and then sadness, a complete and defeated depression. 'Oh, man, that's a lot to feel all in rapid succession. It sounds like you were going through your own fair share of hell.'

'It's not a problem; it's just kind of sad how I died. I know that if it wasn't for James I would probably still be alive. But, that's not the deal either. I feel like i died for a reason, that I wasn't supposed to exist. How could that be true?' he asked, showing a more serious side to the Robin I was getting to know. This time I was quiet, and I sat there not speaking until my mom came into the room with a thermometer.

"Here, let's check your temperature." she said softly as she entered my room. Completely in my room I could actually see her face. The fur beneath her eyes had turned a dark brown in a straight line down both of her cheeks. She had been crying...

'Could that mean what I think it does?' I asked Robin.

'I think so...' he replied solemnly.

With that we both knew, that this wasn't just some odd dream come to life. Robin himself was living, er... he was proof enough. But seeing my mom's tear streaked face, Robin and I came to the harsh conclusion. We had both died last night and it was a very big deal. One of us had come back to life, and I was the lucky recipient of a second chance. The sad thing was that now, we had to figure out how to cope and I had to somehow, help Robin cope. After all, I had stolen his life. And how fair was that?


End file.
